Assessment

Assessment Overview

Effective assessment provides information to improve teaching and learning. Children receive regular feedback on their learning, so they know what it is they need to do in order to achieve their potential.  We share termly reports with parents so that teachers, children and parents are all working together to support the progress of each child and to raise standards.

The aims and objectives of assessment in our school are:                                                                             

To ensure that children at Birkenshaw CE (C) Primary School become inquisitive, self-motivated and aspirational learners;

To enable children to demonstrate what they know and understand and to help children understand what they need to do next to improve their work;

To allow teachers to plan work that accurately reflects the need of each pupil;

To inform the Senior Leadership Team to strategically plan provision across phase groups, e.g. allocation of staff, intervention, use of support.

To provide regular information for parents that enables them to support their child’s learning;

To provide the Senior Leadership Team and Governors with information that allows them to make judgements about the effectiveness of the school.

What does the assessment system at Birkenshaw CE (C) Primary look like?

Birkenshaw Primary School have followed national guidelines and devised our own system to assess and measure pupils' progress. These statements provide parents and teachers with information on how children achieve linked to age related expectations. These include the following criteria:

We track the progress of all children, in all year groups, using our own internal tracking system. Teachers make termly teacher assessment judgments, and we complete end of term written assessment in all year groups from Year 2 to Year 6.

We also complete statutory assessment as detailed below.

What about children who are below the expected level?
Where children are working below the expected standard for their age group, they may be assessed additionally using a measure appropriate to their individual level of attainment to measure progress.  This may include the expected standards of an earlier age group to theirs, Pre Key Stage standards, P scales or using PIVATS.

Statutory Assessment

Which statutory assessments will my child take?

Year 1 - Phonics Screening Test

This Government test is designed to indicate whether a child is able to phonetically decode and read words. Children are shown a number of words (both real and pseudo-words) which they have to be able to read using their phonic knowledge.

Year 2 – Teacher Assessments and National Curriculum Tests

Your child’s teacher is responsible for making judgements about the standards your child is working at in English reading, English writing, mathematics and science, by the end of Key Stage 1. To help inform those judgements, our pupils sit optional national curriculum tests in English and mathematics, commonly called Optional SATs. The tests are a tool for teachers to help them measure your child’s performance and identify their needs as they move into Key Stage 2. They also allow teachers to see how your child is performing against national expected standards. The tests can be taken any time from May onwards and they are not strictly timed.

Further information can be found here: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-information-for-parents

Year 4 - Multiplication Table Check (MTC)

The purpose of the check is to determine whether pupils can fluently recall their times tables up to 12x12, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will also help school to identify pupils who may need additional support. The MTC is an on-screen check consisting of 25 times tables questions. Each child will answer 3 practice questions before moving on to the official check and will then have 6 seconds to answer each question. On average, the check should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.

Further information can be found here: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/multiplication-tables-check-information-for-parents

Year 6 - National Curriculum Tests

In Year 6, at the end of Key Stage 2, children will take national curriculum tests in English grammar, punctuation and spelling, English reading and mathematics. The tests help measure the progress pupils have made and identify if they need additional support in a certain area. The tests are also used to assess schools performance and to produce national performance data. Alongside this, teachers make teacher assessment judgements for English writing and science.

Further information can be found here: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-information-for-parents

How are the assessments marked and what will they tell me about my child?

Both the Phonic Screening test and the Year 2 assessments are marked in school. 

The Year 6 assessments are marked externally.  

The outcome of the phonics screening test is a score corresponding to the number of words the child read correctly.  To have achieved the required standard children must reach or exceed a nationally set pass mark which is released by the DfE, in June, each year.

For the Year 2 and Year 6 assessments, the total number of marks will be converted into a 'scaled score'.  The scaled score will be a number either at, just above or below 100.  Achieving a scaled score of 100 will mean that the pupil is working at the expected standard for the end of their key stage.  A number less than 100 will mean that the child has not achieved the expected standard and a number greater than 100 will mean that the child has exceeded the national standard.